Where to live in Russia
We track 15 cities in Russia, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. Average temperatures run from 3°C to 12°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,566 to €2,782 a month to live centrally. Russia sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, long-term residency is hard to obtain.
12 questions, about 4 minutes, no account needed. Taking the quiz is free, and so is seeing your #1 city. Full results for both of you are a one-time US$12 (€12 in Europe).
- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Russian
- Limited English
- Safety
- 55/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 56/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~80 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 15 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelyabinsk | large | inland | 4°C | 418 mm | €2,584 |
| Kazan | large | inland | 6°C | 479 mm | €2,587 |
| Krasnoyarsk | large | inland | 3°C | 458 mm | €2,575 |
| Moscow | major | inland | 7°C | 651 mm | €2,782 |
| Nizhniy Novgorod | large | inland | 6°C | 585 mm | €2,588 |
| Novosibirsk | large | inland | 3°C | 451 mm | €2,611 |
| Omsk | large | inland | 4°C | 395 mm | €2,582 |
| Perm | large | inland | 4°C | 598 mm | €2,566 |
| Rostov-on-Don | large | coastal | 12°C | 545 mm | €2,578 |
| Saint Petersburg | major | coastal | 6°C | 680 mm | €2,721 |
| Samara | large | inland | 7°C | 484 mm | €2,581 |
| Ufa | large | inland | 5°C | 540 mm | €2,578 |
| Volgograd | large | inland | 11°C | 367 mm | €2,568 |
| Voronezh | large | inland | 9°C | 512 mm | €2,571 |
| Yekaterinburg | large | inland | 4°C | 512 mm | €2,604 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Russia sits in our low to medium tax tier: moderate personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Hard to obtain. Long-term residency runs from a temporary residence permit (RVP) to permanent residence, realistically reached via an employer-sponsored highly-qualified-specialist job, an investor/golden-visa route, family ties, the compatriot-resettlement program, or the quota-free 'traditional values' decree, as Russia has no standalone passive-income or sufficient-means visa and only a tiny general quota.
Bilateral arrangements make it easier for citizens of Belarus.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Russia:
- Investment: about $207k (Russian investor residence permit (golden visa), RUB 15,000,000 non-refundable contribution to socially significant regional projects, the cheapest qualifying route (real estate starts at RUB 20-25M outside Moscow, company investment at RUB 30M); RUB converted at ~72.5/USD, early June 2026; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 63 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 64 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 71 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).